round and round
Easter BBQ, the mall food court, and how to use up a pack of bacon
Hi, friends. I’m back with some catching up to do after taking last week off from writing. Did everyone have a decent long weekend? I hear other places are having nice weather, but I wouldn’t know about that— it was so stormy here on Easter Sunday I nearly got blown away by the wind walking from the car to our relatives’ front door, and although the rain has lessened since, it’s still been unseasonably cold. A hailstorm pelted the windows on Tuesday afternoon, I need a toque if it’s before 10am or after 6pm, and I’m still cozied up under a blanket on the couch every evening so my feet don’t get cryogenically frozen while I read or watch tv.
I had my first movie theatre experience in awhile last week, because it was important that I see John Wick Chapter 4 on the big screen (perfect action movie, by the way). Steph and I went to the new-ish and fancy theatre at Brentwood, which I hadn’t been to before. It’s 19+ because there’s an attached bar and restaurant, and you can order food and drinks from a server who comes right to your seat. As someone who has enjoyed an illicit can of purse beer smuggled into a shitty movie theatre in my time, I do have to say it was pretty sweet to be able to order and pay for one without getting up, as well as drink it from an actual glass, while watching.
We didn’t take advantage of any of the food options, though, because the impressively updated food court in the mall has a Japadog, which we’d both been craving, so we made time to go there before the movie. I branched out from my usual choice of the terimayo and got the okonomi, which comes with fried cabbage and bonito, obviously inspired by okonomiyaki. Steph got the chicken karaage, which is more like a crispy chicken sandwich than a hot dog, and also excellent. I haven’t tried the poutine there, but a few people in line ahead of us got it, and it actually looks pretty good.
My mom’s birthday was at the end of March, but she was working, so we didn’t get to go out to celebrate with her until the first weekend in April. We did a little restaurant/bar hop in Mount Pleasant, starting with tapas and a round of drinks at Como, where we’d gone late last year for my birthday and really enjoyed. As a known grapefruit enjoyer, I appreciate the number of cocktails they have with grapefruit in them, and this time I tried the Rosa Hermosa which was delicious. Knowing we’d only be there a short time (we got seated without a reservation, but with the knowledge that it was prior to someone else’s reservation at our table) we stuck to the tried and true: patatas bravas, garlic prawns, bread, marcona almonds, and anchovy-stuffed olives.
Afterwards we went across the road to Key Party, a divey, campy, 60s and 70s-inspired cocktail bar I’ve been meaning to check out for awhile. The drinks all have suggestive names to match the spirit of the bar (I love mezcal, so I ordered and greatly enjoyed the Birthday Suit). I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t been, but the decor is completely outrageous in the best possible way.
Finally, having had only a few tapas and more than a couple of ounces of alcohol, we decided we needed a little more food, and finished off the night with some surprisingly good tacos at Steamworks. I think I unfairly tend to equate Steamworks with being like Granville Island Brewing because it’s a long-established brewery that’s fairly ubiquitous around here. But unlike the Molson-owned GIB, they’re still doing some interesting things and making quality beer, and the taphouses are spacious and comfortable, even if they might be a little on the generic side. It’s hardly a sin to save the creativity for the beers instead.
We spent Easter with Jeff’s side of the family, for a little brunch followed by an egg hunt for all the kids, then an early (for me, anyway) dinner of burgers and sides— can you tell this event was planned during the False Spring, that one week last month where it was warm and nice out? As it was, the egg hunt was conducted in the basement rather than outside in the storm, and the grilling of burgers was managed during a brief window where the rain stopped. While I love eating burgers, I love at least equally eating all the sides that go with them. Jeff’s mom made a pasta salad we all like with pickles and vegetables, and Natalie made a green salad with lemon poppyseed dressing which everyone always swears they’re going to try making themselves and never do, so we always enjoy eating it at family gatherings.
I made the instant pot (un)baked beans in the style I used here, though without the bacon so they’d be vegan. This was easy enough: I just increased the amount of liquid smoke and was a bit heavier-handed with the olive oil in cooking the onions so that there’d be some more added fat. I also halved the amount of sugar from what I’d used originally, as I’d found it too sweet with the amount of molasses already in the sauce, and I thought these came out perfectly sweet, smoky, and savoury. A couple of the adults and even one of the young kids said it was their favourite thing from the whole dinner, which is an excellent compliment when there are also burgers and pasta salad to contend with. I can’t claim to compete with the Lindt chocolate bunnies, though.
Not too long ago, Jeff and I went for dinner at Malloreigh’s, which I wrote about in a past newsletter, and I liked the dish we had that night so much I replicated it for myself: a vegan pad kee mao, drunken noodles with Beyond meat and green beans. We have a case of the burger patties in the freezer, and I occasionally remember you can crumble these up to use for things other than burgers. Traditionally this dish uses broad rice noodles, but I used linguine because that’s what I had. I really love the sauce for this: salty-sweet and sour with a bit of curry spice. The original recipe is a meal prep one so I had to guess the quantities of the ingredients, but I was overall really happy with how it turned out and I probably should have made a note of how much of what seasonings I added so I can make it again easily. I’ll just have to experiment again next time.
On a whim, I asked Jeff to pick up some bacon at the grocery store, and threw a couple of slices in the frying pan to add to this new Eric Kim banger— a super satisfying gochujang & garlic buttered noodle recipe— for a quick Saturday night meal. I used instant ramen, which means this dish comes together in fifteen minutes, no problem. So not only is it an amazing dinner for when you don’t really want to make dinner, it would also make a good breakfast or lunch with a fried egg on top, or a late-night snack for when you come home after a couple of drinks and chips feel insufficient. I think there’s still a paywall-free link to the recipe in Eric’s instagram profile, but as always, you can feel free to message me for a link, too!
Later on in the week, I had some kale to use, and cooked it up with some more of the bacon for a frittata with gruyere and cheddar (this recipe was the inspiration, but I didn’t use it for cooking). Frittatas are a lot like an omelette, but if you do them right, the texture is really light and lovely, with bits of crispness around the edge. Run the spatula around the edge a few times, lifting the cooked part of the egg slightly, so that the uncooked egg can fill in the space underneath, and then finish under the broiler to cook any egg that’s still raw and melt and brown the cheese.
I also, in a truly amazing feat, blanched the rest of the green beans for a salad with some green goddess dressing and pickled red onion. I often end up tossing out a bunch of green beans every time I buy them, because they only seem to come in a full pound (more than I usually want) and they last about 18 minutes once you bring them home before they turn into brittle, stringy garbage. Instead, I had an easy and delicious salad ready in the same time it took to make the frittata. This was a delightful dinner that made me feel like it might actually, one day, be spring.
As you know, buying a pack of bacon in a 2-person household then becomes a quest to use up the entire thing before you get into the territory of wondering if it’s been open too long to still be fine to use. Luckily, I succeeded, making a lovely carbonara over the weekend, a couple of breakfast sandwiches, and a bacon & oyster mushroom risotto. Every time I make risotto I go into it thinking, “Hey, I haven’t made a risotto in awhile!” and then, forty-five minutes later, am remembering why I haven’t made risotto in awhile. It’s not that it’s difficult, it just always takes longer than I think it will, and by the time it’s ready, I’m usually hungry enough to eat boot leather.
I don’t often use a recipe when I make risotto, because it always starts the same way and I just vary whatever I plan to add to it or flavour it with. Start by cooking minced onion or shallot and garlic in oil and/or butter, then toast carnaroli or arborio rice, while keeping about four times the amount of broth as that of rice warm in a pot on the burner. Deglaze with a hefty pour of white wine (a quarter to a half cup, usually) and add any dried herbs or seasonings. Then start adding the broth in bits, stirring to help it absorb, adding more as it starts to dry out, until the rice is cooked and the sauce is creamy, folding in any additional ingredients like meat or veggies or cheese with the last bit of broth. Any unused broth is useful for reheating leftovers the next day.
For this, I cooked the bacon in a pan on another burner at the same time, then fried the mushrooms with some thyme in the bacon fat, setting them both aside until the end so they’d hold their shape and flavour. At the same time I added these in, I also added parsley, grated parmesan, and a splash of milk to keep it creamy. Risotto may be time-consuming, but it is almost always worth the effort.
There are a lot of excellent recipes in Priya Krishna’s book Indian-ish, and one I come back to often is the saag-paneer style spinach & feta. I love paneer, but almost never have it in my cheese drawer, while feta is pretty much a constant, so this recipe is a go-to when I have a staggering amount of greens. Our produce bin sent us a bundle of fresh spinach as well as the largest bunch of kale I’d ever seen, so I combined them to make this. I’ve also made it with just kale, which still works, though you need to add a bit more liquid to get it to blend properly.
The recipe is quick and easy to make, but it’s really one you need a good blender for, so that the whole spices get properly ground up— you really gain a lot by using whole coriander and cardamom in recipes like this instead of the powdered versions. And if you’ve ever wondered what makes restaurant Indian food so good, the answer, aside from the people who make it being, you know, pros who do it for a living, is ghee. If you aren’t vegan, grab a jar to keep in your fridge and your curries will start to improve immediately.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Anyway, since I’m writing this on the date of Pesach please enjoy this incredibly informative shitpost about Passover.